He said in the nuclearised environment of South Asia, Pakistan continues to follow a responsible policy of maintaining credible minimum deterrence. “Pakistan is mindful of the need to avoid an arms race with India but would never compromise on its national security,” he remarked.

Basit said Pakistan attaches importance to ensuring peace, security and stability in South Asia and is mindful of the adverse implications of “selectivity” and “exceptionalism” in evidence on issues of nuclear non-proliferation.

Pakistan has consistently advocated to India the need to resume the stalled Pakistan-India dialogue, including on issues of peace and security, the spokesman maintained.

“In this context, Pakistan’s proposal for strategic restraint regime in South Asia, including nuclear and conventional forces as well as resolution of all issues and dispute, is of extreme importance,” he said.

Reader Comments (34)

‘taali eik hath se nahi bajti’ If the world is worried about Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal then it should ensure both India and Pakistan sitting down and taking steps to mutually reduce the deployed arsenal it takes two to tangoRecommend

Have I gone Mad but shouldn’t we be disarming WMD’s.
Why on earth would we want to carry on developing WMD’s it does not make sense.
You would think that a weapon that wiped out Hiroshima and killed millions of innocent people would be a deterrent for most.
Instead it seems like we are destined to destroy everything that is good on this planet including ourselves.
It seems more of a race to immanent death not an arms race.
My prediction is there is no point developing WMD’s if they are not be used so I think it’s just a matter of time before the leaders of the world are praying for forgiveness and will regret there egotistical outlook but maybe it will be to late.
I hope and pray that the world comes together and solve together the more important issues such as global warming, world peace, end to poverty and a restructuring of the banking system. The list could go on Forever
The world has gone bonkers and has been for a long time.

there’s no doubt that weapons of mass destruction need to be eliminated, but pakistan is way down on the totem pole when it comes to nuclear disarmament. its time that the US and Russia and Britain get rid of their nuclear stockpiles first before india and pakistan are expected to get rid of theirs. its only fair. Recommend

There is place for WMDs in an ideal world. As Hamza Khan said the disarming should come from the big powers. India has to deal with, not only Pakistan but also China which is a bigger threat. Pakistanis themselves should wisely justify the amount of money and attention they need for these bombs. They should ask themselves how much money, that other nations donate, can be diverted for making these weapons. Recommend

Mr khan
I couldn’t agree more, the u.s started all this so they should lead by example.
Can’t see it happening but we can hope.
I just think that having the attitude if the u.s gets rid of there’s then we will get rid of ours is like a merry go round and nothing will ever be done.
To be honest the u.s is promoting it’s self as a democracy but in my eyes it’s more of a tyranny and they have committed more war crimes than any country.
Unless there is a mass march on Washington dc like what’s going on in egipt then it more than likely will not happen.
Long live planet earth!!!Recommend

Responce to Grant o brian:
Pakistan is completely under pressure from all over the world. Because its a muslim state. Where US / india / israelian intellegence agencies are working in pakistan to do the terror activities and yhen their media is highlighting the country as unsafe. All terrorists get recruited by these countries in afghanistan and then those terror recruits explode themselves in pakistan.
US want to establish that pak has terrorists they want to devide pakistan by weakining its character from security prospective.pak has much more enemies 3 are straight forward but rest including russia and few afghani elements. why US does pressurise israel or india for their nuclears . its the right to defend if others hav it then why pak should not have it. if US leaves us alone by not interrupting into our matters and dont help india or israel then u can thy these things.
its not to kill anyone its to protect our futureRecommend

Response to Samir Iqbal
It should be a world wide commitment and it should never be about what country you come from, what colour your skin is or what religion you believe in.
The one most important thing we have in common is we are all human and all a part of humanity’s survival.
I’m a White British male who lives in London and work in beckton east London where there is large number of Asian community and from what I can tell the majority of people all want a positive ending to all what’s wrong in the world.
It just seems there is to much war mungering and egos colliding specially in our ruling governments.
And you say it’s to protect your future, well what kinda future do we have install for us if our governments are protecting themselfs with WMD’s it’s insane.
This is my point!!!Recommend

US wants to dictate what the World should or should not do. I am not disagreeing with the fact that having something that can not add any value to anything other than killing mass numbers of people should be condemned internationally. I can’t believe that how many people are drying under scorching heat in the summers in the sub-continent while they have enough Nuclear fissile materials to build bombs but not to generate power ?Recommend

The cost of maintaining a large nuclear stockpile is very prohibitive. While large quantities of nukes may add to the bragging rights, anything over 20 is meaningless. Now imagine the costs of maintaining such a large arsenal.

With the economy floundering, it is a crime to divert aid intended for flood-victims to the nuclear programme. Nukes offer little to soothe internal upheavals. The Soviet Union went through the same throes. The economy was going down while military spending was moving up. Recommend

There is no arms Race. With US’s declassified number of WMDs well over 3000. Who gave US, Europe and the world the right to ask or worry for Pakistan. With recorded events of mishandled US nuclear command instruments being accidentally going out of control or US’s president forgetting his part of the card to arm a weapon, in his coat when the laundry gave it back.

Pakistan has never been known to have mishandled any of its WMDs manufacturing.Recommend

Westeren Media is doing a massive propoganda against the nuclear arsenel of Pakistan, why dont it talks regarding Israel and India why only Pakistan. US and India are funding terrorists to destablize Pakistan. Pakistan is maintaining its minimim deterence so as to avoid any foreign agression as it has a big enemy standing in front of it whose name is India and with whom Pakistan has plenty of serious nature disputes like Kashmir and Water. Why dont US reduces stockpile of its thousands of nuclear assets. US is talking for peace but in fact it is the world’s greatest terrorist which has killed innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in PakistanRecommend

It seems like it’s all about money and oil, why else would the u.s sell weapon and military equipment to a supposed enemy.
I think u hit the nail on the head fiasal, the goverments control the media therefore when it comes to important issues like the climate or Poverty it seems there is only minor coverage for these important issues. When it comes to war they will provide fake documents from fake sources to generate a legit story.
Like the fake stories of WMD’s in Iraq, it was lies just to give the public a good enough reason to support the war.
The film green zone with Matt Damon is reality check of how far they will go to get what they want.
U might say it’s just a movie but I think the movie is made because it’s the only way of them showing the public what might really be going on behind the seams.
Great movie by the way.
It’s pure greed and lies.
One thing I hate the most is I don’t have real say in where my money goes I.e tax.
If I had it my way I would tell them your not using my money to go to war or to build WMD’s
It would great if we could dictate where our money is spent instead of these war mungering * for brains.
Conspiracy theory’s a rife one of them has to be right surely.Recommend

Not surprised by many comments here that USA and India and Israel has nexus to break Pakistan in smaller countries and that these countries are causing terrorist attack in Pakistan. What proof you have besides media report and Zaid Hamid about that ? Its always easy to stir a mass hysteria in name of religion that all other non believers are enemy. I bet all of you also think that all the three wars between India and Pakistan was started by India. And of course the Mumbai attack was all big master plan meticulously executed by will of indian and american government. Instead of creating such imaginary conspiracy theory , how about seriously looking around yourself , rationalize your thinking, look at facts produced, dont just behave like donkeys neighing every time someone points out your fault. Not every on is intending to show you down , you need be protectionist about such people who causes terror. At the least do so introspection about how life was before zia-ul-haq made a secular pakistan an islamic state. So yes there is a genuine reason why people are worried about pakistan having nuclear stockpile. If India has ever started war against pakistan in past history then yes pakistan has something to worry about rest is just paranoia created by your generals and so called self styled religious leaders.
I would just wish as a hopeless human that India and Pakistan unites as the once did pre britisher’s time. But looking at this huge mountain of paranoia and lies fed into your brain it just crushes my hope.
Hopefully our generations ahead find some way to co exist in peace.

Pakistan was created on the Name of Islam. It were seculars who hijacked Pakistan initially. The slogan for creation of Pakistan was ” whats the meaning of Pakistan ‘ Laa ilaaha illal La’. which means Allah is one.

Pakistan and India can only unite to the extend that Kashmir will become part of Pakistan, and then both the countries will live in peace.

India vagued a war on Pakistan in 1971, which let to separation of Bangladesh from us and America which had a military/war pack with us didn’t help us in time of need.

in 1998 Israel Air force was present in India to attack Pakistan atomic plant.
How can u say they are not our enemies. Recommend

@Faisal, Seriously (and no pun intended ) where did you get your facts from ? Have you read any foreign articles apart from what your media or historian says about the 1971 and 1998 ? I am pretty you seriously don’t know the history behind Bangladesh seperation and you believe what your text book says about 200 ( or 2000 ) Hindu pundits in Bangladesh created the uprising, then please read this ( its from dawn your own newspaper, and hopefully not written by a hindu or jew )

And Israeli planes in India to shoot down Pakistani nuclear plant ???? Seriously dude, how can you even believe that citing that India has it’s own air force to do that ? Now ofcourse you or some one like you will talk about India not having guts to do it themselves so I wont be surprised.

And about Pakistan created as Islamic state ? You seriously don’t know why Quaid-e-Azam actually created Pakistan ! You seriously lack the historical knowledge of what happened between Nehru, Gandhi and Jinnah which lead to Jinnah’s decision to create Pakistan. And I am sorry Zia re-wrote all your history and hence your school feeds you this ( believe me brother I find history books in India far more comical at times ) . Reading states approved history books in nation like ours is not enough cause it only spits venom against each other. What we need to do is more communication between people to remove all the false cloud of hatred perpetuated and self accelerated by community feeling. The reason I participate in such blogs from my neighboring country is to communicate, not propagate. For a moment forget whats been taught and just pay attention to what if seriously people on the other side of border are not much different. If we continue to behave how preachers of hate wants us to behave our generation ahead will continue to buy and increase weapons other than increasing trade, participate in each other culturally, resolve Kashmir issue and far more productive things which could be achieved.

Again my brother, peace to South Asia, may yours and my kids see a better tomorrow

@Faisal, btw sorry to burst your bubble here, but Kashmir will never be ceded by India to Pakistan, its strategically impossible, so sorry that you wud die with this dream and so would your next n generations will die dreaming about this dream. And seriously you dare say nobody in Pakistan die of hunger? Look at the flood victims please.

@ SidPakistan had freed large part of Kashmir in 1948 war and then again some portion in 1965 war and we will free the remaining in next few years.

India should be ashamed for what it is doing in Kashmir, see the public uprising in last one year. and if India got the guts, it should come and get Kashmir free from Pakistan.

its not Pakistan who is building weapon now, we build WMD and missiles in 90s and we not doing any major activity in this regard any more but its India who is testing missiles 10 times a year in the past decade.

If Zia had rewritten our history, then why Bhutto was actively involved in creation of Islamic Block. Recommend

@Faisal Awan…do’nt talk about guts…who is holding Siachin,Sircreek and Kashmir????…1947,1965,1971,1999….U tried everything..whats the result???Go to anu neutral site and see the history of India-Pak war…you will come to know who is capable of what..Recommend